How much do you spend on groceries? Family of four.

[KB197]

Hi all. Not really an aibu but hoping to find out what others spend.

Family of four and a dog. Two adults, two children and the dog.

We spend around £80-90 on a large shop and maybe a top up later in the week.

I get my shopping delivered with Tesco because they offer the best service.

Mil thinks this is too much and joked around that we should go on Eat Well For Less. She keeps saying that I have to shop at Lidl to save money. The nearest stores are a 30 minute drive away (live in the middle of nowhere) and I order to get my shopping delivered. I hate shopping and I have two DC with additional needs that also hate shopping.

I don’t think we over eat or anything. We don’t buy anything overly expensive or branded but we don’t use budget ranges either.

Is £80-£90 really that excessive? With the top up we may spend around £100-£110 a week?

What do other familes of four spend?

I’ve tried cutting down but we ended up not having enough for and needing to do another bit shop.

The summer holidays have also increased the spend slightly! £££

2 adults 4 kids. Easily spend anything between 100 and 150 a week. But that's for food, toiletries, washing things, packed lunches, nappies and delivery cost because I'm not going shopping with kids!

2 adults 1 cat. £200 a month (includes everything) but if we were to eat all Smartprice etc we could make it a lot less. Sometimes we do as I am a student and we are on a low income.

Fucking. Hell.

We spend easily £150 a week. Hideous.

Might be time to look at what we’re buying...

We’re five and spend more like £180 I think. Do get free range chicken but also a lot of mince for meals. No idea how we spend so much.

I don’t think yours could be much lower. Are you very short for money? If not then just ignore her. It sounds like she’s being pretty over involved.

£35 per day ish. Including loo rolls and cleaning products and day to day toiletries.

We’re a family of 4 and I spend about €70 a week (Ireland).

I shop in Lidl and it would piss me off no end to go elsewhere. Ireland is different though.

I spend between £30-£40 for a family of 4 for a week.

It's had a few top up shops during the summer holidays as they seem to eat more!

We’re a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children. We spend £60 - £70 on Asda delivery every week and then £20 - £30 a week top up. Easily add an extra £20 a week in school holidays.

Ick should I be honest .... £200 maybe, I don't really know, even more when I factor in other food bought out and ordered in. We need an intervention!

Youngandfree that's very good going. What's in that shop? Food wise? I find it fairly hard to keep below €90 for three of us (also including all household items).

(Ddogs food is £20 thanks to all the treats his daddy orders from amazon)

Family of 4. My kids are both little though, 1.5 and 3.5. We spend around £300 per month for everything, including toiletries and cleaning products.

@Dandelion1993 how is that possible? We are a family of 5 and i spend £30 on protein alone, weekly tesco delivered shop is easily £100 including a few household cleaning bits!

I would love to save money on the food shop but there is nothing i can cut, we don't drink and i cook 90% from scratch...

Same as you, between £80 and £90 a week for 4 people and a cat. And about £10 a week on milk and bits. I find it's gone up over the last year or so quite a bit as used to be nearer £60 a week. Also get a delivery as life is too short to be in a supermarket with kids!

@Apileofballyhoo I find that I don’t always need EVERYTHING at once, one week I might need toilet paper and tea bags, the next Week i Might need coffee and toilet cleaner etc etc
I have attached a sample of a typical shop for me (I have posted it before, so I saved it) I had a few items already at home for this particular week. So it was a low budget week. I meal plan and also use the special offers to tweak the meal plans. I go on a no waste plan too. So I buy veggies that I use all week in various ways. I can run through my meal plan for that week if you like?

Very similar. Probable circa £80 per week (delivered by Tesco or as others have said, will easily spend a lot more in store). That’s for 2 adults and 2dc inc. nappies and formula etc. Always end up popping to shop, say maybe £40 per week, depending on wine/chocolate gratings

We're a family of 5 and spend the same as you, however dh is gone four days at a time or so, so that helps keep the cost down.

That was shopping done at lidl btw. I do think I went back to get milk, bran flakes and tomato ketchup that week too so that was probably another €5.

Cravings not gratings! I’m tired

We're a family of 4 (inc 2 adult DDs), 2 dogs and a cat.

Easily spend around £180 a week on Ocado, £100 a month on pet food and maybe £50 a month on odd bits.

I thought we were quite economical until I read this thread

Just me so not a comparable position but I do spend about £300 a month including cleaning stuff etc so I think your spend for 4 plus dog is good. Government figures say the average spend, including alcohol, is about £30 per person per week, excluding eating out so I think you are fine.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-food-201617/expenditure

It’s all very well your MIL going on about you going to Lidl but what about the costs of travel there and your time shopping? And that’s without the additional stress of taking two children who wouldn’t enjoy it.

Family of 4 - DS’s 20 & 22 plus one dog.

Around £170 a week.

Wine isn’t included in the above and dog food isn’t either - we buy in bulk.

£40-£50 per day

2 adults a 9 and 14 y old(but very big boys,5ft 3 and 6ft 2)so 4 adults really so all eat adult sized meals and we by 24 pints of milk a day(i have severe GERD)

both eat constantly and i mean constantly 8-10 home cooked from fresh meals(so no frozen,packet or proccessed) per 24 hours and lots and lots of fruit each and both go through a 4 pinter each

as neither sleep and are both constantly hungry(multiple disabilities each) we make meals any time they want so both adults are literally my user name

forgot to add we are a teetotal house so no alcohol included and thats with out cleaning supplies and we do go daily

Before switching to aldi it was about £60 a week (Morrisons)

Switching to aldi and also cutting down on snacks at home helped. I batch cook a lot, we all eat the same meal (either eat it or wait till the next meal). I also buy the cheapest option of each thing (so the 30p bread, 20p lemaonde) as it all tastes the same.

I also cut down toiletries buy using shampoo/conditional bars, washable pads.

Other than that, I'm not sure how we do it. I guess what helps is buy things cheap in bulk and freezing them.